Quoted: New technological developments on a large range of fronts, from agriculture to electronics and medicine have helped reduce the number of people living in poverty from 29 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2004, but the gap between rich and poor countries is still huge...

Quoted: A simple early warning system that used local volunteers shouting through megaphones to warn people about the impending cyclone saved thousands of lives when Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh last week, and the system proved so effective that it might even become a model for other countries.

Quoted: This book, developed from the first conference of the International Network for Tropical Architecture, supplies a wealth of information from experts worldwide covering the cultural, environmental and technical aspects of thinking, researching and designing for the tropics.

Quoted: Built to tame the violent annual floods of the 4,000-mile Yangtze River and to harness its power, Three Gorges is now threatening many of the rural residents it was intended to help. Since the dam first cut off the Yangtze's flow in June 2003, parts of the reservoir's shoreline have repeatedly collapsed. Waste from neighboring farms and villages is creating a water-pollution crisis. And by flooding hundreds of square miles of rich farmland, the reservoir has robbed hundreds of thousands of farmers of their livelihoods and overcrowded the remaining land.

Quoted: Is small still beautiful? We think it is. In an increasingly divided and fragile world, Practical Action aims to demonstrate and advocate the sustainable use of technology to reduce poverty in developing countries.

Quoted: For the last few years, the Chinese government has dabbled in weather manipulation. (They actually have a department for this, called, ominously, the Beijing Weather Modification Office.) They started out, Pac Man Jones-style, making it rain, increasing precipitation during an unusually dry summer last year. It’s not the simplest process; it involves cloud-seeding aircraft, artillery and rockets, which fire chemicals into the air.

Seriously?

Innovative projects by Chinese architects. I like this one especially: Pingod Sales Center / Art Museum by Atelier Feichang Jianzhu.

Quoted: while firms from around the world are delightedly helping China push its design boundaries, the country's own young architects may be the most interesting to watch.

Fascinating site. Construction with earth sounds very promising, I think we can learn so much from ancient building practices.

Quoted: The EARTH ARCHITECTURE website focuses on architecture constructed of mud brick (adobe), rammed earth (pisé), compressed earth block or other methods of earthen construction and serves as a database for the discussion and dissemination of events, resources, and images of earth architecture in the context of contemporary architecture culture.